The Rockefeller Brothers Fund poured nearly $32 million into nonprofits based in China, including organizations linked to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party, according to a new report from Americans for Public Trust.

The report, titled “The Rockefeller Network: How the Rockefeller Family Turned Their Oil Fortune into Extreme Climate Activism,” examines how the fortune created by Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller Sr. is now being used to support radical projects and climate activism.

Rockefeller Sr., who died in 1937, built a philanthropic legacy that included helping found the University of Chicago. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller also helped establish New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, but the report says today’s Rockefeller charities have moved sharply away from those traditional philanthropic roots.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is an American charity worth $1.4 billion, with money from the Rockefeller family and other donors. Americans for Public Trust described its relationship with organizations in China as a “dangerous partnership with Communist China.”

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“The Rockefeller name used to be a symbol of philanthropy, but they have transformed into a tool of the far left,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust.

Sutherland accused the network of bankrolling organizations connected to the Chinese Communist Party, including groups involved with the Belt and Road Initiative. She also criticized its climate activism and campaigns directed at the American energy sector.

According to the report, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s own tax filings show that it “funneled nearly $32 million to China-based nonprofits.” The report argues that millions went to entities that are either connected to the Chinese government or administered by the Chinese Communist Party and its representatives.

The report singled out $400,000 given between 2020 and 2024 to the Foreign Environment Cooperation Center, described as “a division of the Chinese government's Ministry of Ecology and Environment.”

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It also identified nearly $1.5 million sent to the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. The report said that organization’s “direct ties to the Chinese government are undeniable.”

Nearly $200,000 went to Tsinghua University, according to the watchdog. The university announced in 2024 that its presidential office had merged with the Chinese Communist Party to “form a new Party Committee Office that would run the school.”

Americans for Public Trust argued that even grants appearing harmless are troubling because China controls its nonprofit sector. The report said independent policy research, education, or advocacy cannot operate there without state permission and oversight.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about its activities in China. Its annual tax returns, like those of the other charities discussed in the report, are publicly available.

The family has openly promoted a shift in priorities. In 2014, Valerie Rockefeller Wayne and Steven Rockefeller told the New York Times that the Rockefeller Brothers Fund would divest from fossil fuels.

Why do Rockefeller, Ford, and Carnegie get a pass? The same foundations bankrolled Nazi Germany through both World Wars while building Communist China. The Rockefeller Foundation has been at this since 1900. pic.twitter.com/443xlcrW61

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Valerie later joined Daniel Growald and Peter Gill Case, two other fifth-generation Rockefellers, in a 2020 campaign pressuring banks to stop financing fossil fuel companies. That effort targeted JPMorgan Chase, even though predecessor, Chase Manhattan Bank, had been led by David Rockefeller.

The report also examined the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Though legally distinct, the watchdog said the organizations have abandoned their philanthropic origins to pursue climate activism, lobbying, leftist causes, and work with Communist China.

Rockefeller Foundation CEO Rajiv Shah received more than $1.7 million in compensation during 2024, according to the report. The foundation also promised to investigate its history of funding eugenics pseudoscience, but the report said no such study was publicly released.

Despite announcing fossil fuel divestment in 2014, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund remained extensively invested in fossil fuels as of December 31, 2025, according to the watchdog. That stubborn contradiction sits awkwardly beside the network’s public campaign against the American energy industry.

The report said the Rockefeller Brothers Fund still receives private donations despite its large endowment. Domestic donors include the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, while foreign donors include entities in China, Egypt, Singapore, Canada, and Switzerland.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has also faced accusations that it funded causes hostile to Israel through grantees supporting boycotts and campus protests. Separately, the Rockefeller Family Fund gave nearly $10 million in 2024 to States Newsroom, which the report described as a network of ideological online publications presented as local news outlets.

Litigation has become another major Rockefeller investment. Miranda Kaiser, a fifth-generation Rockefeller and president of the Rockefeller Family Fund, said in 2024 that the organization was supporting more than 30 lawsuits across the United States against the fossil fuel industry.

Those cases were brought by state and local governments and by nonprofits receiving Rockefeller grants, according to the report. They also used research and documents generated by other Rockefeller grantees, revealing a sprawling network aimed squarely at the industry that created the family’s fortune.

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